The invisible friend on WhatsApp: how to organize the giveaway step by step

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Invisible friend
the invisible friend on whatsapp: how to organize the giveaway

Organizing an invisible friend among colleagues, family or work colleagues is much easier if you use WhatsApp: you can create a group, send private messages with the pairings and even use applications that are responsible for making the crossings. We explain all the steps to you.

The invisible friend is usually a celebration that goes far beyond gifts since, by habit, they are the least important thing: the key is surprise the most with the reduced budget available. They save money, amplify the fun, the camaraderie, and … they can be a headache if you happen to organize the invisible friend for a notable group of friends. Let’s see how you can pay for the ballot.

Everything remains in WhatsApp. Minus the draw

Invisible friend

With a messaging application like WhatsApp you can centralize all communication with the assistants to the invisible friend, both from a public group and in the different invitations with the information of who is giving to whom. Yes indeed, what WhatsApp cannot do is avoid the crossroads, you have to give that task to another application.

The apps related to the invisible friend allow from the organization of the draw, with their respective pairings, to sending the ballots with the lucky ones who will give each other. Ideally, keep WhatsApp communication centralized through groups and private chats, but you can also restrict the organization to those applications. In this article we will recommend a few.

If you don’t want to end up on the brink of madness, here are some tips so that the invisible friend you organize comes out perfectly.

Step 1: create a public group where you include everyone

This public group will help you keep track of all the people who are going to give each other gifts: it is very useful not only for participants to take for granted, but also for you know the names that you must enter in the sweepstakes application.

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Invisible friend

In this public group you must communicate the following messages:

  • Maximum budget. This is vital: you must set the maximum amount of money that each of the participants can spend on the gift. The usual is between fifteen and twenty euros.
  • Deadline to confirm the purchase of the gift. You will have to go after people, especially if your group of friends, family or work colleagues is large (and somewhat forgetful). Write down a deadline and remember it as you get closer.
  • Rest of standards. Establish from the beginning the requirements that will prevail in your invisible friend and make them very clear in the public group. Apart from the maximum budget and date, declare that they cannot ask you to fix the giveaway (no “I would like to give to such a person”), if there is a possibility of stealing the previous gifts or not (this increases the fun, but may be cause monumental anger) and any other rule you can think of. You have to be inflexible since surely they try to take advantage of it.

This public group also serves to organize the meeting with the delivery of the gifts and is suitable for you to receive confirmation of whether they will attend or not. It will also be used for participants to advise of possible delays, both in attendance and in the purchase of gifts.

Step 2: create a WhatsApp group just for you

Invisible friend

The public group serves to set standards and as a notice board, but you need a private space in which to carry out to the letter all annotations. A notes app is a good recommendation, although you can also create a WhatsApp group for yourself and take the accounting from there. So everything remains in the application.

Once you have opened a private chat with you, our recommendation is that you write down the following:

  • Who did you send the result of the raffle to and who gets to give the gift.
  • Who confirmed the purchase of their respective gift.
  • Write down those that remain pending and eliminate those that leave the list of defaulters.
  • Write down other details related to your invisible friend. If you have to make changes in the rules, the delivery party, the money that must be put for said party and everything that has come out of your planning.
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Step 3: organize the giveaway with an app

Invisible friend

The app carries out the raffle and allows a link to the result to be shared via WhatsApp

WhatsApp does not allow the organization of giveaways, we already know this. You could manually set the pairings, but our recommendation is that you trust an application that is responsible for applying randomness. Less worries for you and with a guaranteed excuse: “I did not do the draws, it was the app“.

There are several applications that are responsible for organizing pairings in the invisible friend, most of them usually work in the same way: you set the participants, if you want specific people to pair up and not too much else. Once you have the results, you can send them one by one through private WhatsApp chats or trust the invisible friend’s own applications: they allow you to share the result with WhatsApp, for example.

Secret Santa App

Secret Santa App

  • Developer: JHSV
  • Download it at: Google play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Lifestyle
Invisible Friend 22: Organize your free giveaway

Invisible Friend 22: Organize your free giveaway

  • Developer: Infinite Sandwich
  • Download it at: Google play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Lifestyle
Secret Friend Giveaway

Secret Friend Giveaway

  • Developer: Central Dev
  • Download it at: Google play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Tools

Any of the three apps above will do the job for you. Add all participants, choose if there will be any that you can not give to another specific person, fix the crosses you want (be careful, this can work against you), carry out the raffle and share the results with each participant through WhatsApp. Remember to record who confirms and who does not in your private WhatsApp chat.

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Step 4: communicate the results to the participants

Invisible friend

You have already run the raffle, you know who each person gets and you have a purchase deadline. Now it’s time to open chats with each of your friends, family or work colleagues to tell them which person they should give the gift to. Or, in the event that the giveaway app gives you the option, share your result with each person.

Our recommendation is that you create a generic message and send it to all contacts making sure that you correctly change the name of the person to whom they should give the gift. For example, you can send something like this:

I have already made the invisible friend draw: you have received xxxx. Remember that you have until xxxx and that the maximum budget for the gift is xxxx euros. When you have made the purchase, confirm it with a message in this same chat

You must change the “xxxx” for the name, the date and the budget you have for the invisible friend. Y Go writing down in your private chat who you sent the message to and everyone who confirmed the purchase. You must keep progress up to date so that no one escapes from their obligations. There is always someone who ends up forgetting (or pretending that he forgot).

And have fun

Sometimes everything doesn’t go as planned, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing either: the premise of the invisible friend is to have fun with those closest to you. Mistakes may even end up making gift giving more memorable (that’s what usually happens). After all, the invisible friend is an open date for improvisation. Enjoy it!